Inca Gold (Dirk Pitt 12)

Sarason's face looked like a white plaster death mask. Sweat poured down his forehead. For a man who did not excite easily, his eyes were near-crazed with shock. He stood silent, as the monstrosity left him too stunned to speak.

Amaru leaped to his feet and tried to speak, but only a whispered croak came out. His lips quivered as he rasped, "Go back, diablo, go back to infierno."

The phantom gently lowered Gunn to the ground. He removed his helmet with one hand. Then he unzipped the front of his wet suit and reached inside. The. green eyes could be seen now, cast on Loren's exposed position on the cold, hard rock. They glinted under the artificial lights with a terrible anger.

The two men who were still pinning Loren's legs stared dumbly as the Colt thundered once, twice in the cavern Their faces went wildly distorted as their heads snapped back and exploded. They collapsed and fell across Loren's knees.

The others bolted away from Loren as if she had suddenly acquired the black plague. Julio moaned in a far corner unable to see, his hands still over his injured eyes.

Loren was beyond screaming. She stared at the man from the river, recognizing him but convinced she was seeing a hallucination.

The shock of disbelief, then horror at the realization of who the apparition was, made Amaru's heart turn cold. "You!" he gasped in a strangled voice.

"You seem surprised to see me, Tupac," said Pitt easily. "Cyrus looks a little green around the gills too."

"You're dead. I killed you."

"Do a sloppy job, get sloppy results." Pitt cycled the Colt from man to man and spoke to Loren without looking at her. "Are you badly hurt?"

For a moment she was too stunned to answer. Then finally, she stammered, "Dirk. . . is it really you?"

"If there's another one, I hope they catch him before he signs our name to a lot of checks. I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner."

She nodded gamely. "Thanks to you I'll survive to se

e these beasts pay."

"You won't have to wait long," Pitt said with a voice of stone. "Are you strong enough to make it up the passageway?"

"Yes"yes," Loren murmured as the reality of her salvation began to sink in. She shuddered as she pushed the dead men away from her and rose unsteadily to her feet, indifferent to her nakedness. She pointed down at Gunn. "Rudi is in a bad way."

"These sadistic scum did this to the two of you?"

Loren nodded silently.

Pitt's teeth were bared, murder glaring out of his opaline green eyes. "Cyrus here just volunteered to carry Rudi topside." Pitt casually waved the gun in the direction of Sarason. "Give her your shirt."

Loren shook her head. "I'd rather go nude than wear his sweaty old shirt."

Sarason knew he could expect a bullet, and fright was slowly replaced by self-preservation. His scheming mind began to focus on a plan to save himself. He sagged to the rock floor as if overcome with shock, his right hand resting on a knee only centimeters away from a .38-caliber derringer strapped to his leg just inside his boot. "How did you get here?" he asked, stalling.

Pitt was not taken in by the mundane question. "We came on an underground cruise ship."

"We?"

"The rest of the team should be surfacing at any moment," Pitt bluffed.

Amaru suddenly shouted at his two sound, remaining men. "Rush him!"

They were hardened killers but they had no wish to die. They made no effort to reach for the automatic rifles they had laid aside during the attempt to rape Loren. One look down the barrel of Pitt's

.45 beneath the burning eyes was enough to deter anyone who did not cherish suicidal tendencies.

"You yellow dogs!" Amaru snarled.

"Still ordering others to do your dirty work, I see," said Pitt. "It appears I made a mistake not killing you in Peru."

"I vowed then you would suffer as you made me."